Load management regulates electricity demand by encouraging consumers to shift usage to off-peak times. It distributes production requirements evenly throughout the day, minimizing costly infrastructure upgrades and generation-level demand response. Load management policies use economic incentives and two-way communication capabilities to accurately target equipment in use.
Load management involves regulating the demand for electricity. Typically, this is done by limiting electricity use during peak demand periods and encouraging consumers to shift their usage to off-peak times. Most electric grids operate at a fraction of their capacity during off-peak hours and only at most during relatively short peak hours. Load, or demand, management distributes production requirements more evenly throughout the day. Generation-level demand response and costly infrastructure upgrades can both be minimized with load management.
Electricity cannot be efficiently stored in large quantities at a reasonable cost. It has to be generated in real time to meet consumer demands. When demand threatens to exceed a network’s capacity, steps are taken to avoid an outage. You need to bring additional generation resources online, buy electricity from outside the grid, or control demand. Usually, a combination of these solutions goes according to plan.
Bringing backup generation capacity online and purchasing electricity increases a utility’s operating costs. Generating underutilized facilities during off-peak hours also increases costs. These factors also increase the cost to consumers. Load management seeks to distribute demand evenly over time, enabling generating facilities to meet projected load requirements while operating efficiently at cost-effective levels.
When high demand threatens the stability of a network, load management techniques can step in directly. Ripple control is a widely used method, which sends a signal on power lines to periodically shut down non-essential domestic and industrial loads. In highly stressed networks, non-essential usage may be limited to a few hours per day.
Modern versions of this system include a two-way communication capability to accurately target equipment actually in use. For example, if ten air conditioners are detected in a neighborhood in use, the system may turn off one after another for ten minutes every hour. The houses would still remain cooled, but the cumulative effect would be one less unit running.
Load management policies are often motivated by economic considerations and use economic incentives. If the load on a grid is evenly distributed over time, a smaller generating plant operating at its most efficient capacity can meet the power generation requirements. A two-tier pricing system is often employed as part of a load management program to encourage electricity consumption during periods of low demand.
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